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Izzhov
Dec 6, 2013

My head hurts.


There are 50 people trapped in a room. They don't know how they got there. A machine in the middle of the room is killing them off at regular intervals. They have to figure out what's going on. That's it, that's the movie. I just watched this on Netflix.

You find out within the first 5 or 10 minutes that the people are able to vote for who to kill next with hand gestures. From that point on the movie is basically just one long game of Mafia/Werewolf, being used as a pretext to explore social issues. I found it pretty ham-handed a lot of the time, but still engaging regardless. I was fairly impressed by how much they managed to keep me on my toes when it came down to who would be voted to die next. Such moments were often comical in how surprising they were, but still made sense for the characters.

I feel like there's a decent amount of "rewatch value" for this movie in terms of keeping track of everyone's motivations, as more gets revealed about many of the characters which sheds light on their past actions.

I would recommend this movie for people who like a looooooot of talking, and not much action. If you can look past a lot (though not all) of the characters being kind of broad stereotypes, you will find a still fairly engaging and dense thriller.

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Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord
It feels like every Nintendo DS visual novel and the story sort of fizzles out into nothing after a strongish start.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours

Owlofcreamcheese posted:

It feels like every Nintendo DS visual novel and the story sort of fizzles out into nothing after a strongish start.

I don't know what this means.

Macksy
Oct 20, 2008
It's 50ish people who are just standing and talking and nothing else until the very end and I enjoyed it very much.

Its like survivor tribal council but every 5 minutes you vote who gets kick out of existance instead of kicked off the island.

Macksy fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Feb 13, 2018

Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

I don't know what this means.

Instead of Saw movies japan had a fad of releasing a lot of "Visual Novel" videogame stories based on "a large number of people are trapped in an enclosed area and have to decide who dies". Several of them have that sort of red and black trianglely and big black orb visual motif that this movie used.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours
Huh, ok. Had no clue about this!

WeedlordGoku69
Feb 12, 2015

by Cyrano4747
The Zero Escape series is probably the most famous example of what owlofcreamcheese is talking about over on our side of the Pacific.

Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord

LORD OF BOOTY posted:

The Zero Escape series is probably the most famous example of what owlofcreamcheese is talking about over on our side of the Pacific.

Danganronpa probobly kicked it off although they all seem like more and more boiled down versions of like gantz or battle royal. Now there is a million of them.

Firstborn
Oct 14, 2012

i'm the heckin best
yeah
yeah
yeah
frig all the rest
Belko Experiment and another one starring Glenn from TWD also came out last year. And two video games that are strictly "battle royale" based, so much so that it's become a subgenre now.

.... Killing of a Sacred Deer is technically a similar premise.

Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord

Firstborn posted:

Belko Experiment and another one starring Glenn from TWD also came out last year. And two video games that are strictly "battle royale" based, so much so that it's become a subgenre now.

At some level almost every death match based videogame is based on "what if everyone was in an area and everyone had to kill each other" but it really did feel like tone wise and visual style wise this was drawing really hard on the current set of "psychological" story based vote someone off the island to death stuff that has the same sort of story about protecting an innocent vs the greed of man or whatever.

God Hole
Mar 2, 2016

I forget who said this but someone on these forums was always quick to mention that this was financed by a certain production company with a conservative bent that usually pushes movies with an agenda. In this case, the agenda seems to be to drive home the message that SJW liberal beta males are all conniving hypocrites in the end.

Still, it was an entertaining "what if" film, just don't read too much into it.

Izzhov
Dec 6, 2013

My head hurts.

God Hole posted:

I forget who said this but someone on these forums was always quick to mention that this was financed by a certain production company with a conservative bent that usually pushes movies with an agenda. In this case, the agenda seems to be to drive home the message that SJW liberal beta males are all conniving hypocrites in the end.

Still, it was an entertaining "what if" film, just don't read too much into it.

This seems to be directly contradicted by the fact that at the end of the film, when sociopath guy wins and wakes up and finds the other circles' survivors, at least one of them is a pregnant woman. Implying that some genuine sjw self-sacrifice did occur in other circles.

I guess you could reason that that pregnant woman was a sociopath as well, but that would be an odd choice to make her pregnant and have the audience draw that specific connection.

Izzhov fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Feb 15, 2018

Chemtrailologist
Jul 8, 2007
This movie also states that a fetus is a person. If that were true then it should have been killed when it left it's space.

God Hole
Mar 2, 2016

Izzhov posted:

This seems to be directly contradicted by the fact that at the end of the film, when sociopath guy wins and wakes up and finds the other circles' survivors, at least one of them is a pregnant woman. Implying that some genuine sjw self-sacrifice did occur in other circles.

I guess you could reason that that pregnant woman was a sociopath as well, but that would be an odd choice to make her pregnant and have the audience draw that specific connection.

The conclusion is more sinister than that. The conclusion of the film is that our society values un-interrupted fertility, and by extension pregnant women, which I would tend to agree with. The filmmakers are suggesting that despite the rest of society's flaws, liberal SJW beta males are in fact the ONLY threat to our nation's ability to procreate, to perpetuate itself, because they're psychopathic enough to end the life of a woman and her unborn child. Hence, the overly-simplistic conclusion of the aliens' social experiment on the USA is a nation of only pregnant women and cunning liberal SJW beta males who succeeded in destroying the sanctity of the fetus. Basically, if we all listened to SJW's, humanity would end. It's a pro-life, anti-SJW film.

God Hole fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Feb 15, 2018

Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord
It does feel like a movie where a lot of the characters in the movie have and express really terrible opinions and it feels equally likely that the authors of the film would say "we aren't the characters in this movie, just because they something doesn't mean we are pushing that opinion" and that they'd say "yeah, that's our opinion, we had characters turn the the camera and state the point, how much more clear could we make it?". Like people in this movie with bad opinions do die, but so does everyone so it's hard to tell how much bad opinion = comeuppance and how much the movie was going for "he had a point you know" on some of it.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

I just watched this on a whim and have to agree that despite starting off well enough it does sort of devolve into weird conservatism by the end. The one rich looking rear end in a top hat being so blatantly racist and homophobic almost makes it seem like they're to distract from the pro-life nature of the ending (Or perhaps just the entire film) by setting up and knocking down this kind of conservative strawman beforehand.

Owlofcreamcheese posted:

It feels like every Nintendo DS visual novel and the story sort of fizzles out into nothing after a strongish start.
Hey.

Some of those visual novels are on the PlayStation Vita too!

Raxivace fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Feb 16, 2018

WeedlordGoku69
Feb 12, 2015

by Cyrano4747
this is one of the very few movies that I would ever call actively dangerous to society, because it takes a staggeringly loving awful viewpoint and exists entirely as a way to compel people into agreeing with it

the black husserl
Feb 25, 2005

LORD OF BOOTY posted:

this is one of the very few movies that I would ever call actively dangerous to society, because it takes a staggeringly loving awful viewpoint and exists entirely as a way to compel people into agreeing with it

I don't think it's cogent enough to actually sway anybody's beliefs but if you're the type of sad person who uses words like "SJW" and "cuck" as a part of everyday conversation, then yes this film will definitely make you wanna donate money to some gamergater's patreon.

Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord

LORD OF BOOTY posted:

this is one of the very few movies that I would ever call actively dangerous to society, because it takes a staggeringly loving awful viewpoint and exists entirely as a way to compel people into agreeing with it

What about that horror movie where a bunch of women were kidnapped from an abortion clinic and forced to give birth and it was an anti abortion movie where all the women learned a lesson about not getting abortions (and also they were actually in hell). What the heck was that movie even called it had someone vaguely famous in it.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours

Owlofcreamcheese posted:

What about that horror movie where a bunch of women were kidnapped from an abortion clinic and forced to give birth and it was an anti abortion movie where all the women learned a lesson about not getting abortions (and also they were actually in hell). What the heck was that movie even called it had someone vaguely famous in it.

Are you talking about The Life Zone??

OhAreThey
Oct 12, 2012

I like your nurse's uniform, guy.
This was one of the truly shittiest films I saw in 2015. It reeked of sophomoric "edginess" in the way that 2005's "Crash" did with the whole sometimes bad people can do good things and good people can do bad things! WHOA!!! Also, one of the premises is that you can't judge a person's "worthiness" based on outside appearance--but then the filmmakers throw that poo poo under the bus when they make it clear that children and pregnant ladies automatically shouldn't be chosen to die (because they're more worthy? why?). Basically, if a 20 year old white male took Philosophy 101 at State College and decided to make a movie, this would be it.

Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

Are you talking about The Life Zone??

yes, it sucked because it wasn't even funny bad

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours
That movie is truly batshit.

Owlofcreamcheese
May 22, 2005
Probation
Can't post for 9 years!
Buglord

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

That movie is truly batshit.

a review I found online:

The pregnant women are often tortured by dreams of death and despair -- montages of swarming bees, swirling tornadoes and speeches by Hitler one night, African-Americans and foreigners shouting "abort me" in foreign tongues the next -- while Dr. Wise experiences flashbacks to the dissolution of her marriage which fell apart when she learned she couldn't bear children. Her parents cursed her for not taking better care of her body, a poor diet, too much work, while her husband -- The Karate Kid's bad sensei Martin Kove -- divorces her, leaving her for a woman capable of having his children, a moment that pushes Dr. Wise to desperate measures.

All three women deliver and finally the first of the plot's twists are revealed. Staci, most opposed to pregnancy, is blessed with two children - twins - while her fellow captives only give birth to one baby each.

Later, Staci wakes up. The two new mothers are no longer captives, they've presumably ascended to heaven with their babies. It's revealed all along the women had been in Purgatory, after having died on the operating table of abortion clinics. But because Staci attempted to miscarry even after a second chance at motherhood, and because she never accepted the error of her ways until she experienced the physical joy of giving birth, of seeing her children for the first time, she will be doomed to eternity in Hell.

Loggia is Satan and he informs Staci she will spend all eternity in a cycle of pregnancy and childbirth and Dr. Wise will forever be her doctor, as the movie's final twist plays out: Wise too will spend eternity in Hell. She was so weak she committed suicide when her marriage collapsed and must suffer the fate of forever bringing life into the world, endlessly having to appreciate what she did not value on Earth.

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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours
Wow, what a lesson, huh?

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